1. Field
A separation membrane, a method of manufacture thereof, and an apparatus including the separation membrane are disclosed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pd-based metals are used for membranes for selectively separating hydrogen gas from a gas mixture containing hydrogen gas. The Pd-based metals form a structure having a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice. Hydrogen can be selectively separated by hydrogen dissolution and diffusion into the interstitial sites of the FCC lattice of Pd. However, the high unit cost and the low permeability of available Pd-based metals limits their commercialization.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a hydrogen separation membrane having excellent hydrogen permeability, e.g., a hydrogen permeability similar to or higher than that of a Pd-based metal membrane, and having a lower cost.
A porous separation membrane and an amorphous separation membrane have been developed.
In a porous separation membrane, gases are separated depending on the size of the pores. However, gas selectivity of the porous membranes, for example, hydrogen gas permeability/CO2 permeability, is low, since it is substantially difficult to manufacture a membrane having pores of the same size or of a perfectly spherical shape.
As for the amorphous metal separation membranes, the process or composition for manufacturing the membranes is limited to those which can be quenched because the membranes are manufactured by quenching molten metal. Since the membranes are used at a high temperature, i.e., between 250° C. and 500° C., amorphous membranes may also suffer from insufficient durability due to crystallization of the metal at a high temperature.
Thus there remains a need for an improved hydrogen separation membrane.